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Any idea as to why Microsoft chose China to partner with? Maybe it will help strengthen ties between our countries with the whole us owing them so much money now and we only keep asking to borrow more with no idea as to how we are going to pay it back.

Apparently software piracy needs an entire Chinese city to go to war against it. Microsoft Corp. announced that it’s partnering with the eastern Chinese city Hangzhou. Microsoft chose this city as “a model for innovation and protection of intellectual property” in a three-year contract that will promote the development of local technological innovation.

Microsoft will be providing them with with two new centers where they will train and support new curriculum. While they hope to boost innovation, Hangzhou pledged to tighten-up their piracy restrictions on new software.
Alec Cooper, general manager of Microsoft Greater China’s “Genuine Software Initiative,” told AP reporters in a conference call that the partnership will focus on showing locals how important fighting piracy of intellectual property is to their economic future.

This is a worldwide problem. The American software and entertainment industries claim to lose billions of dollars each year due to piracy. This whole deal is right around $1 billion and is set to span the next three years, which seems like a small price to pay for the millions of dollars lost by others.